KYIV - The Kremlin began formally issuing Russian passports to Ukrainians living under occupation on Saturday , even as Moscow's forces confront a growing insurgency in areas they control in southern Ukraine and struggle to provide essential services like medical care.solidify Moscow's control in the south,
Ukraine's military has also claimed to have found evidence of earlier plans by Moscow to issue Russian passports around Kyiv, the capital. After Russian forces were forced to withdraw from around the city, a cache of passport forms from the former Soviet Union was found in an abandoned house near the town of Makariv, according to the Ukrainian military intelligence agency.
Ukrainian officials have urged people living in occupied regions not to apply for the passports, but also fear that Russia could use coercive measures - like requiring them for employment - to force people to exchange their documents. Russian news outlets reported on Saturday that authorities in the south had handed out about two dozen Russian passports in Kherson and 30 in Melitopol, with hundreds more applications pending.
In Mariupol, the Black Sea port that was levelled by Russia, even basic medical needs are not being met, according to the Ukrainians. And Britain's defence ministry on Friday joined a growing chorus expressing alarm about the increasingly dangerous living conditions in the city. A lack of clean water, the destruction of the sanitation system and the collapse of the health care system, the ministry reiterated, could fuel an outbreak of cholera.
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